Wishing you a very happy Valentine’s Day, whether you are in a relationship and looking forward to an evening of romance, or are one of many singles this year that will be taking advantage of a day made for self indulgence and pampering yourself like you never take the time for throughout the rest of the year.

Today is the day when all of us singles should take a few hours to indulge our desire to be pampered. To give ourselves an excuse to relax and not stress. To soak in a hot tub with candles and aromatherapy. Prepare our favorite meal and put on a movie that we adore.

This is the day when we might treat ourselves to a new soft bathrobe or comfortable pajamas. Indulge in a home perm. Maybe have a girls night out with friends that will end in a slumber party and a night of games and pampering reminiscent of our teen years.

It is 2010 – Happy New Year!!

I’ll share my resolutions tomorrow and would love to hear what your resolutions as a family caregiver are.

I think I commented here that me and dad picked up an old Chevy Astro at an impound auction last month. I’ve finally got the chance to get better acquainted with the poor thing and it needs some serious help in the mechanics department.

The engine sounds great and the thing seems to drive okay, but there is some stuff that I have to fix – like busted door handles, a broken speedometer and blown out headlight. It’s mostly minor things that I am noticing for now, so that is good.

I called the local NAPA today and they are going to find me a Chilton’s manual on the thing so I can tear into it and start getting the mechanical stuff like the speedometer repaired.

The past few days have been really difficult, since dad has stopped sleeping though the night (well, what was sleeping through for him at least) and has instead started getting up just about the time I am able to get the chance to go to bed.

This would not be much of a problem, except he insists on smoking, and I feel uneasy about leaving him alone with a cigarette while I am sleeping. If he were to fall back asleep and drop a lit cigarette in his lap… :-/

The result of this is that I can not sleep during the day because I have work that I have to do, and I can not sleep at night because my dad insists on getting up to watch TV all night. Which means I get a couple of hours just before noon when I can sleep before I am woke back up.

There is an upcoming YouTube debate for questioning the presidential candidates – I’ll have to do some research on that, but one thing I had been thinking on would be if that would be a good time to ask the presidential candidates about what they have planned for health care for seniors and people in the situation of being a full-time family caregiver where they can not afford health care insurance or anything like that.  The government has no problems with giving public assistance to illegal aliens – what about letting family caregivers qualify for medical and other assistance as well?